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In Mandarin, this dish is called:

suō diū

嗦丢

"suck and throw away"

It's not as zany and lacking in historical grounding as you might think.

Zihan Guo observes:

Diū is a common verb meaning to "leave behind; lose; throw away". Suō 嗦 describes how to slurp and the sound of slurping. We usually say it over noodles or something long like fěn 粉 ("vermicilli"), as in the expression "suō fěn 嗦粉" ("slurp noodles")*. You might have written about it. I find stones very important in Asian cooking culture. Do you like roasted chestnuts 糖炒栗子? When walking down the street in China (particularly in northern China) one often sees vendors selling chestnuts. They roast chestnuts with small gravel. These stones help distribute heat evenly. I also believe that the idea of cooking stones is not new or modern. There were stories about Daoist practitioners cooking and eating white stones? A vegetarian cookbook from the Song dynasty contains a recipe, i.e. 石子羹. The dish is simply boiling stones with spring water. Of course, this is only symbolic. In Japan today there is also well-known haute cuisine such as 懐石料理. People always associate it with Buddhism.

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*There's a shop by that name ("suō fěn 嗦粉" ["Slurp Noodle"]) at 189 Dundess Dundas St. W in Toronto.  Those who have seen the classic Japanese Western-debutante comedy "Tampopo" will know exactly what is meant by "slurping noodles" properly.

Something analogous developed in the West.  Diana Shuheng Zhang remarks:

The Hanzi are suōdiū 嗦丢。 "Suck and dispose.” Very apt! :) 

I never tried it, but there’s no way that I’ll buy it! For me, the biggest worry is whether the pebbles that I’m sucking are recycled from the last customer. LOL 

But I do personally have a good friend from college who was utterly devoted to losing weight so that he could pursue a pretty girl. During that time, he only sucked the flavor of his food, no matter whether it was  chicken wings, French fries, or even bread. Then he threw away the entire plate of food! He also regretted about his wasteful behavior, but he couldn’t not do it. He needed the sensation of the flavors in his mouth and the food’s feeling in his hands to overcome his craving for food that he was determined to refrain from. Otherwise he didn’t think he would make it to the goal of slimness (or at least nonfatness). I guess people like my friend would be the target consumers of suōdiū 嗦丢 ("stir-fried pebbles")?

Note that there would be a lot of noisy, sloppy slurping going on around the stalls that sell this delicacy.  Those who are AVERSE to such qualities and activities would keep their distance, just as many people stay far away from stinky bean curd stands, while those who favor / savor those sounds, tastes, and smells flock to them.

De gustibus.

Selected readings

• "Burp Bowl" (6/26/18)
• "Chinese words and characters for 'gizzard'" (1/7/15)
• "Six words" (7/23/10) — word aversion, including "slurp"
• "Condensation and displacement in word aversion" (4/3/13)
• "Getting your word" (4/5/22)
• "'Live in jegging'" (8/4/10)
• And google on       victor mair language log bean curd        for some wild dishes you may never have heard of before.

[h.t. Sunny Jhutti}

August 2, 2023 @ 12:04 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and food

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